Trust is the only thing that scales

Sometimes the best thing you can share is real life advice you've given someone. What follows is an email [almost verbatim] I sent to someone who asked me about the blurring line between professional and personal lives online (emphasis added):

My first impression is that this [person] is doing something awesome [online]; and that I wish the [organization] would find a way to leverage [their] passion for outreach/recruiting purposes (i.e. bring [them] into the fold officially rather than keep [them] at arms length); but that might just be wishful thinking.

'paranoia' by katiew

My professional opinion is that your responsibilities as a communications adviser to monitor this particular situation ends at advising [them] to read the TBS guidelines and remind [them] of [their] responsibilities under the Code of Values and Ethics (and any other unique codes of conduct within the organization).

My reason being that you may be able to police [their] activities now, but if everyone in the [organization] started blogging tomorrow could you scale that approach to your entire organization? Trust in the professionalism of your workforce is the only thing that scales across the entire organization and the only thing that pays dividends in the long term. [This person] is obviously engaged in [their] work, does the organization really want to risk alienating [them] over this?

As you may or may not know I've been blogging about the public service as a public servant for the last 4+ years without major incident. As long as [they are] willing to accept the consequences of [their] actions, whatever they may be, I see no harm in letting [them] continue.

PS - I only got one Guerrilla Renewal submission, here it is, and it is awesome.







Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.ca subscribe/connect

MBR: Reality is Broken, Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

I decided I was going to read a book a week for a year, here's a quick review of this week's book.  You can see the ongoing list here.

Basic Info

Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal





Why I read it

I wanted to learn more about gamification, this seemed like a natural choice.


How it connects to the Public Sector


The book speaks at length about the future of collaboration and the role of games in promulgating a more collaborative ethos.

In fact, immediately after reading the chapter on Collaboration Superpowers I was convinced that senior managers looking to better understand collaboration ought pick up a copy of the book.

(Note: the whole book is available on Scribd at the link above but I'm really not sure as to the legality of it being there.)


What I got out of reading it


What struck me most about the book was how it rooted some of my long standing interests and how I approach my work, in my love of (and experience with) video games; in particular, my desire to be immersed in highly engaging work, the fact that I enjoy frequent feedback, and the fact that I tend to approach problems with a long/systems view.

I was also struck with how McGonigal relates a part of her argument to Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, stating that we are growing entire generations of gamers who will all meet the criteria for the 10,000 hour rule, and that these people are likely to be more poised for collaboration than the generations that came before them.

If you are interested in knowing more about the concepts from the book, I've embedded a couple of videos from the author below, but I suggest picking a copy of Reality is Broken if you want a more complete understanding.

Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect

Guerilla Renewal

The other day I took down a notice from the communication board, took it back to my desk, and made some alterations with my Sharpie.

I got the idea from Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist (which references his previous work Newspaper Blackout in which Austin uses a sharpie to black out newsprint to create poetry).

This is Guerilla Renewal at its finest.

Try it out, email me a copy, I'll post them here next week.

Now, off to affix it back to the board.




Originally published by Nick Charney at cpsrenewal.casubscribe/connect